Giants Of Discovery And It's Goodnight From The Human Race (Translucent)

Translucent red vinyl. Giants of Discovery is the alias of Kevin Downey. The origins of And It's Goodnight From The Human Race can be traced to a session that Downey recorded for The Magic Window, Steven Anderson's radio show. Titled Next Stop, The Stars, his set was conceived as a family vacation where the sightseeing included the rings of Saturn and the vastness of Jupiter, all seen from the cockpit of a small recreational spaceship. The tracks captured that sense cosmic wonderment that had characterized the 1950s Space Race and the imaginations of a whole generation. The tracks from Downey's Magic Window session form the first four tracks on And It's Goodnight From The Human Race. Between Next Stop, The Stars and this album, Downey's outlook changed. "As I began writing the other tracks the theme of the album definitely took a darker turn," he says. "Instead of a happy 'space family' traversing the Solar System, I instead imagined the remnants of the human race that had been forced to abandon Earth and head off into the farthest reaches of space in search of a new home." Those twin themes allow And It's Goodnight From The Human Race to oscillate between the hopeful and funereal. A piece like First Night Under A New Moon outwardly seems full of optimism and energy. A rapid arpeggio presages a sense of excitement, which is increasingly held in check by minor chords that leave you feeling uncertain and full of trepidation by the track's conclusion. Elsewhere, We Can Never Go Home is utterly heart-wrenching. There is a profound sense of melancholy here, as if we are collectively longing for something that was once held dear, but which is now lost forever. Despite oscillating between those two poles, Downey was keen for the album to take the listener on mankind's journey to a new home, the conclusion of which he wanted to be upbeat and positive. "There's an initial bleakness as they have to leave behind Earth and venture off into the cold, vastness of Space, unsure where they will end up or if they will even survive," he explains.